Urban Classes

Between the extremes of wealth and power represented by the white
upper class and the native caste is the predominantly mestizo and cholo
population, which largely comprises the lower and middle sectors of
rural and urban society. These are the most numerous and diverse
sectors, constituting the core of Peruvian national society in culture,
behavior, and identity. Together, these sectors include a wide range of
salaried workingclass families, persons in business and commercial
occupations, bureaucrats, teachers, all military personnel (except those
related to elite families), medical, legal, and academic professionals,
and so forth. In terms of occupation, residence, education, wealth,
racial, and ethnic considerations, the population is diverse, with few
clear-cut markers differentiating one segment from another. Yet, there
are obvious differences among the regions of the country that combine
with those indicators to suggest a person's social position in relation
to others. The importance of the regions derives from the fact that the
urban and rural areas of the Sierra are, as a whole, measurably poorer
than the Costa and Selva, and the various occupational groups less
well-off in proportion. As in the case of the provincial upper class,
being middle class in the regional context does not necessarily mean the
same thing in the capital, although being marked as lower class would
translate to the same category in Lima or Trujillo.

An important study by anthropologist Carlos E. Aramburu and his
colleagues in 1989 provides a graphic outline of how levels of living
vary throughout the nation. Analyzing the 1981 census, they ranked the
153 provinces on the basis of five variables: the proportion of
households without any modern household appliance; the average per
capita income; the percentage of illiterate women over fifteen years of
age; the number of children between six and nine years of age who
regularly worked; and the rate of infant mortality. These indicators
were representative of involvement in the economy, participation in
state-operated institutions, and access to health services, each of
which is critical for marking advances in the level of living from the
perspective of the modern state. Only 9 of the 100 highland provinces
were represented among those in the top two levels of wealth, and only
Arequipa was in the top rank. In contrast to the Selva provinces, which
lacked any rank, eighteen of the twenty-eight coastal provinces
registered in the top third of provinces according to wealth. At the
other end of the scale, all but three of the poorest fifty-three
provinces with 20 percent of the population were in the highlands, and
none were on the coast. These data, when juxtaposed with the
distribution of monolingual Quechua and Aymara speakers, confirm the
poverty status of Peru's native population at the bottom of the
socioeconomic scale.

Thus, the provincial upper classes, with few exceptions, do not
equate with the Lima-based national elite, whose socioeconomic position
is vastly enhanced by their status as Lima residents and, subsequently,
by their international connections. The same can be said for the other
middle and lower sectors of the provincial population in comparison to
Lima. In a very real sense then, Peru has two levels of class structure
layered in between the national extremes of the oligarchic elites and
the rural native peasantry: one in the context of Lima's primacy, the
other with reference to the rest of the nation.

Although the role of racial phenotypes and associated ethnic
behaviors is clearly seen at the extreme poles of Peruvian society, it
is somewhat obscured in the middle sectors. In general, the more closely
one approximates the ideal of Euro-American appearance, the greater the
social prestige and status derived. On the other hand, Peru is a country
whose majority population is darker skinned, with distinctive facial and
bodily features. The varied shades of meaning attached to the
designations mestizo and cholo are as much socioeconomic and
cultural in import as they are racial. Thus, in the Peruvian vernacular
phrase, "money whitens" one's self-concept and expectations.

With other non-native groups, such as the Japanese, Chinese, and
Afro-Peruvians, status and class considerations are structured somewhat
differently, yet exhibit the same tendencies toward ethnoracist marking.
Just how strongly stereotypes have prevailed over facts was witnessed by
the 1990 presidential election of the Japanese-Peruvian Alberto
Fujimori, who was constantly referred to as el chinito (the
little Chinaman). Racial terms are frequently employed in normal
discourse in ways that many foreigners find uncomfortable.
Afro-Peruvians are referred to as zambosnegritos, or
more politely as morenos (browns). In many instances, this
terminology implies behavioral expectations and stereotypes, and yet in
others the same term is simply used as an impartial means of
description.